New owners of Schrade

singin50 said:
Yes, I have seen the China made "so called Schrade knives" and I can tell you there's a BIG difference in the previous USA made and these Chinese made knives.
Click to expand...
Please, Do tell.
What is (are) the "BIG difference(s)" between them?

As I said, I have both. I actually use both.
After over ten years of using them side by side, I can find NO real differences; other than the color of the Delrin and the tang stamp ... Oh! And my Taylor Made in China Old Timer 7OT holds an edge a little better than my US made 7OT.

I also happen to have an Imperial "Prov. RI" Barlow and an Imperial "Ireland" Barlow.
Once again, a side by side comparison shows these two knives to be identical in every way. The ONLY difference is the tang stamp and country of origin.
Since the "Ireland" knife was not made in the USA, does that mean it is "not a 'real' Imperial"?
I don't know for sure, but I suspect my "Imperial Ireland" was made sometime after the US factory burned down.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Schrade bought imperial in the 70's And and in 88 schrade moved imperial production to Ireland.
Click to expand...
It was "Imperial-Schrade" long before the 70's.
Brands owned by Imperial-Schrade prior to the 1970's, include Hammer Brand, New York Knife Co, Robeson, (Robeson beginning in the 1930's I believe), Camillus, Ulster, and several more.
 
Ramrodmb said:
I am trying to figure a way to address these points respectfully.

As to the first highlighted part, I am not grateful for what Taylor Brand did to the monumental Schrade Factory collection.

I do not feel like the Taylor brand knives are or were anywhere near the originals in quality.
I have no opinion on S&W buying them as it makes no difference to me.
Just my opinion, yours may vary.
Click to expand...

I wasn’t attempting to troll when I wrote this but I knew these comments would be controversial.

I think my perspective as an Australian is a little different because here TB schrade knives are abundant, and American made knives are non-existent - unless purchasd from small importers at very, very high prices. So TB Schrade provides an option to ordinary folk to own a well made and cheap traditional pattern that would not otherwise exist for them.

But the real impetus behind it was my visit to a small general store in a country town a few weeks back. They had some stockmen for sale and I handled one. It wasn’t a TB Schrade and it was truly horrible quality with various flaws all over. As I handled it I realised how good TB Schrade production standards are, and it caused me to reflect on the way that TB has chosen to handle the Schrade brand name compared to the way other names have been handled - Camillus being the prime example. With TB at least you have very high production quality and very good replicas - and that isn’t necessarily as bad as people say when compared to the other possibilities.

No they won’t be the same as the old ones (unless they open up an American factory) but I think people are too quick to jump on the criticism of that line.
 
Last edited:
The only difference I see is the Taylor made ones use a Stainless steel instead of the 1095 we all love.
 
deltaboy said:
The only difference I see is the Taylor made ones use a Stainless steel instead of the 1095 we all love.
Click to expand...
The old timers have poorly glued shields, and the color just doesn't look good at all.
If I had to have one it would probably be some kind of uncle Henry , but definitely not a china old timer.
 
afishhunter said:
Please, Do tell.
What is (are) the "BIG difference(s)" between them?

As I said, I have both. I actually use both.
After over ten years of using them side by side, I can find NO real differences; other than the color of the Delrin and the tang stamp ... Oh! And my Taylor Made in China Old Timer 7OT holds an edge a little better than my US made 7OT.
Click to expand...

Where to begin...

Not comparing below or above standards for either side, because that can even out or greatly separate individual examples and give a false reading of both brands on the overall level.

In direct comparison to the average USA schrades the taylors generally have thicker and more blocky handles, are thicker behind the edge, have less precise grinds, wonky looking finishes, blades that have more metal taken off from spine to edge giving them a more narrow appearance and less longevity, mushy walk and talk and or rough actions, sharper corners on handles and blades, washed out handle colors, and to top it off they don't have schrades wonderfully executed 1095.

If we are going to talk about edge retention let me ask you this, how did you base your edge retention comparison? If one just cuts some random stuff and one knife beat the other that is not an accurate result. There's no way to remove all the random factors that would drastically effect the results by doing random cutting with no controls. As far as edge retention goes steel is far less important than the edge geometry, but that is a separate subject. Back to schrade.

Now, I am NOT saying taylors are bad knives in their own right but if you want to compare their standard of measure to the real schrade standard standard of measure taylor doesn't stack up. We're also not even comparing the old schrades, which blow the later schrades away. I have hundreds of usa schrade knives, I feel confident saying that I know schrade and what they put out fairly well. They were among the best as a matter of fact, which is why I collect them. They have stood the test of time and are more well known than most any other knife brand because they are dang good.

If the taylor knives didn't have the schrade name on them they would just be a puny footnote in the long list of knife manufacturers.
 
Last edited:
I think there is also a bit of added confusion because the Taylor quality has increased compared to their first efforts. Taylor started importing knives under the Schrade brand in ~2006; and their first efforts were pretty rough. But the quality has increased over the years and the Taylor Schrade that I bought within the last couple of years was of quite decent quality.

I have a pair of 834UH Uncle Henry stockman knives. I bought them to specifically to compare the new to the old. One is new old stock, made in USA. The other is a Taylor Schrade. Can I tell them apart? Certainly. But not because there is a major quality gap between them. I can tell them apart because the blade designs and covers are slightly different. And by the way, I applaud Taylor for choosing to have the color difference. Makes it impossible to pass off the new for the old. I appreciate that they chose to do that.

But the designs are different. The Taylor Schrade depends less on crinking to make the blades fit. They use more of an offset approach and because of that, the Sheepsfoot and Spey blades are thinner than those blades on the US Schrade. They all cut nicely and hold an edge about the same. From a user perspective, I'd call it a wash. From a quality perspective, likewise a wash. But the knives actually are different and I can differentiate them easily. They are not exactly the same.
 
And I agree. Neither one is the equal of the Schrade knives of long ago. But that wasn't quite the question.
 
knarfeng said:
I think there is also a bit of added confusion because the Taylor quality has increased compared to their first efforts. Taylor started importing knives under the Schrade brand in ~2006; and their first efforts were pretty rough. But the quality has increased over the years and the Taylor Schrade that I bought within the last couple of years was of quite decent quality.

I have a pair of 834UH Uncle Henry stockman knives. I bought them to specifically to compare the new to the old. One is new old stock, made in USA. The other is a Taylor Schrade. Can I tell them apart? Certainly. But not because there is a major quality gap between them. I can tell them apart because the blade designs and covers are slightly different. And by the way, I applaud Taylor for choosing to have the color difference. Makes it impossible to pass off the new for the old. I appreciate that they chose to do that.

But the designs are different. The Taylor Schrade depends less on crinking to make the blades fit. They use more of an offset approach and because of that, the Sheepsfoot and Spey blades are thinner than those blades on the US Schrade. They all cut nicely and hold an edge about the same. From a user perspective, I'd call it a wash. From a quality perspective, likewise a wash. But the knives actually are different and I can differentiate them easily. They are not exactly the same.
Click to expand...
Huh! This post makes me want to gather one of the new ones to give it a go and see what they are all about, thanks.
 
I have pre 1975 Old Timer and Schrade Walden knifes that are better quality than most modern Case .I defend Taylor cause they made solid knife without the GEC or Canal Street Prices !
They are affordable and do what you need and that cutting stuff.
 
Technically, the ownership chain is this:

American Outdoor Brands, formerly Smith & Wesson Holding Company, owns three other companies: Smith & Wesson, Battenfield Technologies, and Crimson Trace.

The Battenfield Technologies subsidiary (btibrands) currently owns 13 to 16 brand names, depending on where you look on their web site, 4 of which are the old Schrade brands (Schrade, Old Timer, Uncle Henry, and Imperial). These were all acquired when Smith & Wesson Holding company acquired Taylor Brands, LLC in 2016, and moved those brands under the BTI company.

I have a couple of the Taylor LLC Old Timers that I bought just to see what they were like, and a couple of older US-made Old Timers. One of the Taylor knives has a defect serious enough to not be able to use it, but not worth the time to deal with it for what it cost. The other one is an OK knife, good as a beater knife, which is probably the target use profile anyway. I don't have the desire to buy a BTI knife just to see if there is any difference.
 
Last edited:
I recently looked at one of their knives at the local farmers supply store. It looked okay from outside the display case. In hand the finish was a bit rough and the blade action was okay, but not particularly smooth. Fit and finish was pretty decent. I would rate it a few notches below Rough Rider in terms of quality and definitely below Rough Rider in terms of value for the money. It would have been a good value at $10, but seemed overpriced at $22. However, that was just one knife, so I don't know how it compared to the whole line.
 
Last edited:
Hickory n steel said:
The old timers have poorly glued shields, and the color just doesn't look good at all.
If I had to have one it would probably be some kind of uncle Henry , but definitely not a china old timer.
Click to expand...

I only had a Buck lose it shield and I just glued it back in!
 
deltaboy said:
I only had a Buck lose it shield and I just glued it back in!
Click to expand...
The 6 China schrades I've held in person all had shields that weren't flush or level, or had glue on the outside.

Maybe they wouldn't come off, but they sure didn't look good.
I'm not trying to say nobody should buy them or anything, I just wouldn't
 
I think the Schrade Old Timer BONE handled knives (I have four) are as good as any Schrade ever produced and I've had a lot of the being a collector for 65 years.
Rich
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top